Health is more than influenza Luc Bonneux b & Wim Van Damme c b. Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Postbus 11650, The Hague 2502 AR, Netherlands (e-mail: bonneux@nidi.nl). c. Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2011;89:539-540. doi: 10.2471/BLT.11.089086 The repeated pandemic health scares caused by an avian H5N1 and a new A(H1N1) human influenza virus are part of the culture of fear.1–3 Worst-case thinking replaced balanced risk assessment. Worst-case thinking is motivated by the belief that the danger we face is so overwhelmingly catastrophic that we must act immediately. Rather than wait for information, we...